In cellular communication environments, the electronics used to facilitate receiving and transmitting signals are distributed between a base housing and a masthead, which is mounted atop a building, tower, or like mast structure. The actual antennas used for transmitting and receiving signals are associated with the masthead. The masthead will generally include basic electronics to couple the antennas to corresponding antenna feeder cables, which connect to transceiver and amplifier electronics located in the base housing.
Historically, the amount of electronics placed in the masthead has been minimized, due to inhospitable environmental conditions, such as lightning, wind, precipitation, and temperature extremes, along with the difficulty in replacing the electronics when failures occur (i.e., physically carrying replacement electronics up the mast structure, which can be in excess of 100 meters (300 ft.) in height). Maintenance of the masthead is time-consuming and dangerous, given the location of the masthead. Minimizing the electronics in the masthead has resulted in essentially each antenna being associated with a separate antenna feeder cable.
As time progressed, the reliability of the electronics has greatly increased. Further, the cost of the electronics has been greatly reduced, whereas the cost of the antenna feeder cables has held relatively constant, if not increased. Thus, a decade ago the antenna feeder cables were an insignificant cost associated with a base station environment. Today, the cost of the antenna feeder cables is a significant portion of the cost associated with the base station environment. Accordingly, there is a need to minimize the number of antenna feeder cables associated with a base station environment, without impacting the functionality or operability of the base station environment. Further, there is a need to minimize the increase in cost associated with the masthead and base housing electronics by minimizing the number of antenna feeder cables required to connect the masthead electronics to the base housing electronics.